30 May – 2 July 2009
Preview Friday 29 May 6 – 8pm
Press Release:
Museum 52 is delighted to present Let the Golden Age Begin, John Isaacs’ fifth solo
exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition presents a series of new works in which Isaacs
touches upon preoccupations with hope and loss, that which is fleetingly gained, and at
what cost. He highlights a kind of cyclical phase of optimism and cynicism, through which
both cultures and individuals pass, though never with any synchronized sense or drive.
Pool of Narcissus Weeping sits central to the installed works and offers a way into the
eclectic and temporal collection of works. Referencing the early modernist language of
Rauschenberg and Flavin, and yet pathetically empty of iconic status, it illuminates the
framed drawing hanging on the wall beside it. The empty chair waits for the viewer, if not in
body then in mind, also bearing the secret of collected butterflies glued with chewing gum
to its underside, as though Isaacs wishes to re-humanise an already passed moment in time.
What Lies Before What Lies Behind, a circular framed relief of two hands shaking is charged
with the iconic power of its duplicitous use in the representation of both comradeship (in
the communist era), and capitalistic power play, but beyond that for Isaacs the
representation of two disembodied hands represents something far from an equal
agreement, and something far from our own place and time. He presents an unrequested
contract written in greed and inequality.
In the back viewing space, Isaacs screens a new film Let the Golden Age Begin, cut
together from found wildlife documentary footage. The video, in its reuse of both image
and sound, its blatant unoriginality, speaks against the avant-garde quest for the new and
meditatively pulls the viewer back to a place which for many of us is by now a long lost
fantasy of the natural and its disappearing status. The soundtrack lends the footage a new
romanticised rhythm, and it is with a degree of shame, of longing and love, that the
awareness that we ourselves are the abusers of something so innocent, traps us within the
lullaby. With these pieces, as with much of Isaacs’ work, there is a strong sense of the
universal connection that underlies our apparent isolation from one another. Combining a
sense of appealing optimism with abject pessimism, Isaacs examines our historically and
culturally determined conventions, with an often humorously brutish reality.
Gallery Hours:
Wednesday-Saturday 11am – 6pm
For more information call +44 (0) 20 7366 5571
Let the Golden Age Begin, 2009, 6 min looped DVD, Film Projector, Soundtrack, Copyright the artist, Courtesy Museum 52, London
Let the Golden Age Begin, 2009, Installation View, Copyright the artist, Courtesy Museum 52, London
Pool of Narcissus Weeping, 2009, Chair, Neon, Tape, Table Light, Butterflies, Chewing Gum, Copyright the artist, Courtesy Museum 52, London
